By Zephyria Gangwon Province, Hongcheon, halfway up Mount Odae. A brown wooden door appeared beneath the shade of a tree. Creak—as if representing the heart of the person opening it, the door slowly opened with a chilling sound.
Soon, a young man wearing a black baseball cap and jacket walked out. The man’s face was so dark under the hat that it was hard to see properly. It was because he was wearing a mask.
Old sneakers stood on the thickly grown grass. After looking around and confirming that there was no one around, the young man squatted in front of the door. A strangely distorted voice spoke.
“Thank you for opening the door. Thanks to you, I arrived quickly.”
“Y-you’re welcome…”
Romantic Opener, Choi Goyo, answered in a dying voice. He was lying face down on the floor of the small room where Eui-jae stayed, with his cheek against the floor. The space was a little too small for an adult man to lie down, so he was folding his arms and legs like a frog, and he looked quite pathetic.
Eui-jae looked at him with pity.
“Should I move you to a wider place?”
“A wider place… where?”
After thinking for a moment, Eui-jae carefully asked.
“The floor of the store is a bit… should I put some tables together and lay you down on them?”
“No…”
“……”
“Just… drag me and lay me down on the grass…”
“Are you okay staying here? It’s the middle of the mountain.”
“I-I think so… Min-gi Seo will pick me up… probably.”
The answer wasn’t very clear. Eui-jae looked at Choi Goyo suspiciously, then picked him up and laid him down under the shade of a tree. Choi Goyo struggled to raise his hand and waved it weakly. It seemed like the best greeting he could manage.
“Have a good trip… when you go home…”
“When I go home?”
“…Gack.”
He couldn’t even finish his sentence and dropped his head with a pitiful death rattle. He looked like he was about to die, but fortunately, he soon started breathing raggedly.
Eui-jae squatted around him, watching the unconscious Romantic Opener. After a while, a low voice flowed from Eui-jae’s shadow.
“Oh, you’ve arrived. I’m sorry I’m late. Excuse me for a moment…”
It was a familiar voice. Min-gi Seo crawled out from the end of Eui-jae’s shadow. He looked at Romantic Opener, who was snoring away, and said in a satisfied tone.
“You did well according to the contents of the attached file. Excellent.”
Eui-jae had taken out the mask from the box that Cluck had carried, seen him off, and then opened the attachment that Min-gi Seo had sent. It contained not only the address and map of the Prometheus branch, but also detailed instructions on how to get here, which could be summarized in three lines.
Contact Romantic Opener and tell him to come quickly.
Tell him to open the door.
I’ll take care of the pickup.
‘Manuals are good…’
Was this why Lee Sa-young trusted Min-gi Seo with everything? The plan he presented was quick and convenient. Eui-jae looked at Min-gi Seo with admiration. Was it just his imagination, or did his sunglasses look even more reliable today?
Min-gi Seo brushed off the grass from his suit.
“Well, then… before we go in, shall we take a moment to review and explain things? I’ll briefly explain some facts that would be good to know, and things to watch out for.”
Min-gi Seo snapped his fingers, and something black wriggled and gathered on the floor. It was a shadow.
The shadow rippled and formed a rectangle, and Min-gi Seo drew lines on it with a twig. Soon, the shadow transformed into a shape similar to the map in the attached file.
“Prometheus has branches everywhere. Jung-bin gave us the information about this branch, and after exploring it, it seems to be quite large.”
Eui-jae squatted down and muttered.
“Didn’t the Bureau of Rift Management and the Guilds say they were going to take down Prometheus? How can it be this big?”
“Well, there’s a sad story there too. To summarize, it’s because of you, Master.”
Eui-jae, who was suddenly pointed out as the culprit, looked at the shadow with a sullen expression. How hard had he tried to live quietly among the Hunters!
“What did I do? I just quietly sold Hangover Soup.”
The self-proclaimed Hangover Soup Restaurant worker, who had stirred up the Mana Stone incident, messed with Hunters at Incheon Port, attended the Artisan Exhibition, and beat up the Master of the S+ Grade Dungeon, cautiously tried to appeal to his harmlessness. Fortunately, Min-gi Seo shrugged.
“I summarized it too much. It’s not because you did anything. I’m not blaming you either. Hmm, to explain the flow, that’s how it is. Now… like this.”
Min-gi Seo drew a circle with a twig and divided it into exactly three pieces. Soon, the inside of the circle filled with shadows.
“I explained this once before, right? The Prometheus investigation was a collaboration between the Bureau of Rift Management, Wave Guild, and Seowon Guild. But.”
He picked up one piece of the shadow and moved it aside. Two pieces remained.
“After you, Master, or rather, J, appeared in the rankings, the Awakened Management Bureau decided that tracking J was more important, and withdrew from the Prometheus case. Most of their manpower was diverted to tracking J. To find J.”
Eui-jae, who had been forcibly resurrected against his will, closed his mouth. Who knew that being resurrected and forcibly entering the Ranker Channel would cause such a big butterfly effect? He knew they would find him eventually, but he didn’t know they would track him so aggressively.
The twig poked the remaining two pieces. One piece turned into a small human figure and began to pretend to move luggage.
“It would have been fine if only the Bureau of Rift Management had left, but the Wave Guild also focused its manpower on tracking and disrupting you, Master. Since the Wave Guild, which was the most aggressively pursuing them, withdrew… they didn’t miss the opportunity.”
There was a strange word in the middle. Eui-jae, who had been listening quietly, suddenly raised his head.
“Disrupting? …Wait, the Wave Guild was looking for me too?”
“Oh, this was supposed to be confidential.”
Min-gi Seo didn’t seem too embarrassed even after making a slip of the tongue.
“But well… since it’s a closed case, I guess I can tell you. The Wave Guild was also actively looking for you, Master. They even carried out a disruption operation to prevent the Awakened Management Bureau from finding you.”
“…Why?”
Why was the Wave Guild looking for J? Moreover, from the sound of it, they didn’t cooperate with the Awakened Management Bureau, but seemed to have found him independently. Wasn’t Wave a Guild created after J entered the Rift?
As if he knew Eui-jae’s question, Min-gi Seo answered nonchalantly.
“Well, as always, it’s the Guild Master’s orders, what else could it be? We don’t know the details.”
“……”
“You do what you’re told. Anyway…”
Why Lee Sa-young? Many questions arose. However, Min-gi Seo cut off his thoughts with a businesslike attitude.
“To explore the inside, you need an authorized card key. Most areas require an authentication process to enter. The security is quite thorough.”
Eui-jae also came to his senses at the cold attitude. A card key. The researchers would each have one. Eui-jae rubbed his chin and asked.
“Does the authority vary depending on the rank?”
“Oh, that’s a very good question. Yes, to enter the depths of the branch, you need at least a senior researcher’s card key.”
“Good…”
Eui-jae muttered, memorizing the shadow map.
“So, I just go in and beat up the guys who look like researchers and take it from them? One by one…”
“……”
There was no answer even though he said the correct answer. Eui-jae glanced up, and Min-gi Seo was looking at him with a face like Munch’s The Scream. His face was so shocked that Eui-jae also cautiously looked around, uncharacteristically.
“…Is that wrong?”
“…Absolutely not.”
Min-gi Seo muttered gloomily and took something out of his pocket and handed it over. It was a plastic card with a few drops of blood on it. A photo of a man wearing glasses was embedded in the center of the card. Eui-jae politely accepted the card with both hands. Min-gi Seo’s sunglasses gleamed.
“Please trust me a little more! Did you think I wouldn’t have prepared something like this! I’m Min-gi Seo! A specialist in stealth and infiltration, and 36th in Korea!”
“Ah, yes, yes. Thank you very much.”
The number one Hunter in Korea bowed to the 36th. Min-gi Seo, who had been quietly seething, sighed and swept back his hair.
“That’s beside the point… now, let’s clarify your purpose. What are you trying to find or confirm here?”
“……”
“The clearer the purpose, the more time you save.”
Eui-jae fiddled with the card key and answered.
“First, I’ll check the list of test subjects and find out what kind of experiments they’re conducting here.”
“It’s very likely that the person you’re looking for won’t be on the list of test subjects.”
“I know. But if I start here and trace back…”
The air around him fluctuated. A sharp energy swirled around, shaking the surroundings. Min-gi Seo involuntarily took a step back. The branches of the trees shook violently.
Eui-jae put the card key in his pocket and continued.
“I might find some clue.”
“……”
“Even a very small clue. That’s all I need.”
“…Alright. If that’s the case.”
Min-gi Seo pointed to the inside of the forest.
“If you walk straight along this path, you’ll find the entrance. I’ve roughly cleared away what was blocking it with trees… just go straight in.”
Eui-jae nodded, and Min-gi Seo, ah, twisted his lips. He looked somehow embarrassed.
“…The inside might be a bit of a mess.”
Beep, the closed door opened when he swiped the card key. Splatter, splatter, old sneakers stepped into puddles. A fishy and sweet scent seeped through the gaps in the mask. The dark and wide space was eerily quiet. Eui-jae looked around and sighed deeply.
“A bit of a mess, he said…”
He groped for a button on the wall and pressed it, and suddenly, the wide space lit up. What came into view was…
“This is beyond a mess.”
It was a laboratory covered in blood and corpses that had fallen while bleeding dark red blood from every hole in their faces.